C39
"They say an underground auction will take place soon."
"So?"
"This old man is worried that the young one might have gotten involved in something bad."
A whim that started from Kylo's useless words.
It must have been the duke's breath.
His father, the duke, was a stubborn man.
So, he must have given a subtle hint to Kylo, and it was clear that Kylo, who had been helping him for a long time, easily noticed his master's intentions and came to tell him.
"If you're so worried, why don't you tell her to move her heavy hippo ass?"
When he opened his mouth without hiding his sensitivity, Kylo opened his eyes wide in disgust, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"No way, it was just this old man's thought, young master."
"...go away."
"I bought a ticket in advance just in case."
Kylo left the mask and ticket on the table and turned away as if nothing had happened.
Erno Etham sighed, covering his eyes with his arms as he lay on the bed.
Not long ago, he found the lost artifact.
However, what was strange was that the body, which should have stabilized, continued to be unstable even though the fragment had been found.
The fever had gone down a bit, but that was all.
His heart was still beating fast, and he looked up at the sky without understanding, and when he came to his senses, he was walking around the cold room of the girl who had already disappeared.
"My head hurts."
Now he knew. The girl was gone. She left him behind and ran away.
He concluded that.
So...
"It's okay if I forget her."
He had said he would find her, but he couldn't even find where the girl was hiding.
Originally, he would have given up already.
Erno Etham hated being bothered. He was not the type to genuinely enjoy being interested.
But still...
At first, when the girl had just disappeared, he didn't mind looking for her.
He thought he had to find her somehow.
Halfway through the day, he thought he would be as different as the girl.
If she was scared, he would bring her to comfort her, and if they misunderstood, he wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.
The same game he used to play with the girl he had only known for a few months.
"Did he really get attached to her?"
Otherwise, there was no way he could hear the girl's laughter even if he stood still.
When the girl was present, his mind was clear, and there were few signs of madness.
Lately, however, he hadn't thought that the bad mood would arise.
"This is the last time."
He sighed as he slowly reached out and picked up the red dragon mask from a nearby tea table.
He hadn't even counted how many times he had said that.
He slowly closed his eyes, clutching his throbbing head.
Three new figures of black tigers lay carelessly on the table.
Undoubtedly, the underground auction was boring. It was an unpleasant space where the strong and the weak were obvious.
His brow naturally furrowed at the vulgar acts and evaluations taking place before his eyes.
"As expected, I came here for no reason."
Erno Etham was about to regret it.
"And then, a mutant lizard entered. It's a lizard that will have a very pale color when it grows up."
At the commentator's comment, who had a ridiculous expression, his body stood up.
A chilling sensation ran down his spine. The commentator's lips twisted.
Erno Etham was convinced. He was sure that the "lizard" he was talking about was the girl he was looking for.
"A lizard...? Those disgusting things are common in the Southern Continent too."
"It's not that common type of lizard. It's a lizard with silver scales. It's a girl who's not good at humanizing yet. Her hair is pink..."
Crack-
The armrest he was resting on had a clear crack.
As he raised his hand and slowly got up from his seat, a guide with a fox mask rushed over.
"Take me."
"What?"
Shwaaa-
Erno Etham's hand held the guide's neck at an imperceptible speed.
"Take me to where the girl they just mentioned is."
Seeing Erno Etham's cold face with wide-open pupils, the guide struggled in panic and then nodded desperately.
He slowly let go of his hand.
The guide, who had fallen to the ground, almost crawled forward.
Erno Etham's golden eyes gleamed.
"Th-th-they should be here..."
"...?"
"...Where have the children gone?! They didn't even watch properly!!"
The guide quickly ran and began scolding the other guides.
Erno Etham looked at the dark cell. Several of the iron bars had disappeared.
It was a space big enough for the children to come out on their own. Soon, he noticed a strand of pink hair underneath.
It was when he bent down to pick up the strand of hair that had fallen to the ground.
"Red Dragon Mask... that's you."
He turned around at the sound of a voice just behind him.
The opponent who appeared suddenly as if he had fallen from nowhere was wearing a robe and had an expressionless white mask covering his face.
However, seeing his small stature and youthful voice, he guessed it was a child.
The people around him were busy with their own business, as if the sudden appearance of the child were invisible.
Normally, he would have been more curious, but right now, he was in a bad mood.
Because he found the traces of the girl he had been searching for in the worst place he had visited.
"I thought only the boys here had ventilation holes in their brains, but it seems the guards also have huge ventilation holes. It's pathetic that even a child like this got in."
"Take this."
The boy wearing an expressionless white mask without a pattern held a bulging envelope.
It was an envelope with a childish illustration.
"I tend not to touch dirty things."
"It's difficult; I was asked to deliver it."
The young voice fell into embarrassment for a moment, then brought the letter a bit closer to Erno Etham.
It was also a whim to accept the letter that would normally have been burned without receiving it.
"So, that's it."
The boy seemed to take a few steps back, but soon disappeared as if blending into his surroundings.
He slowly looked at the letter.
It was hard to tell if it was text or an image with twisted and jumbled letters.
<Dear... Mr. Erno.>
Erno Etham, who stared at the letters filling one side of the palm-sized envelope, opened it as if bewitched.
He touched something convex and turned the envelope in his palm, and a blue piece fell out.
It was exactly the same as the artifact he had. He hastily opened the letter.
<Hello, I am writing this because I have something urgent to tell you.
First, I want to apologize for the artifacts you lost.
I knew someone would steal it, but I didn't tell you. I'm sorry.
But I didn't steal it...
Instead, I accidentally found the same thing and I'm sending it to you.
Also, could you tell Callan Etham to make a medicine to get rid of insects?
Please make the request using the ingredients below.
[Materials List]
Purple Thought Petals, Unripe Aclecia Fruits, Mengsa Roots... (continues)...
This medicine must be taken by many people. I can't go into details, but there will soon be a disease among the nobles.
If possible, I hope many people can take it by explaining the recipe.
You may not believe it, but I hope you do.
-Eirin.>
It was so large that a single word could fit in one hand. Therefore, it seemed that four or five sheets of paper were used in the letter.
It was not an elegant style. It was a stiff literary style, as if it were a history book.
However, by looking at the abbreviations and the occasional scrawl of words here and there, one could see how concerned the girl must have been.
"If you wanted to leave me..."
He squeezed the letter.
"You shouldn't have shown regret, daughter.
You shouldn't have cared about who died, who got sick, or what happened to my relic, just as I let it be stolen from me.
Even if you leave like this, I won't be able to close my eyes if you show that you've been thinking about this side."
"...This way."
Erno Etham moved his feet following the trail of the children who had escaped from the cage.
